Outlook bleak for Leicester

By David Miller

6:22PM BST 26 Aug 2001

HERE were two managers with problems to solve - utterly different, at opposite ends of an admittedly early table of League merit, with their credentials as ever under examination alongside their teams. Arsene Wenger, for the moment, can feel substantially more at ease than a harassed Peter Taylor.

Never mind that Leicester were without an unfit Matt Elliot, or that central defender Gary Rowett and Muzzy Izzet in midfield were injured in the first half, their performance was clueless and boneless: 10 men behind the ball (nine after Wise's act of typical provocation), little individual ambition to want possession, no tactical plan beyond limiting Arsenal's scoreline. Only Tim Flowers in goal could hold his head high.

The suspicion is that Taylor has been riding on the momentum of Martin O'Neill's achievement, that this feeling exists in the dressing room, that he had no answer when things faltered.

A team showing signs of dressing-room uncertainty - "confidence a little bit low," Taylor said euphemistically - must be measured, furthermore, by their performance against opposition that too often could not have hit a dead duck, let alone a sitting one. Arsenal should have scored eight. Their season, and Wenger's, will be partially dependent on the ratio of chances created against chances missed.

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The incident after an hour barely affected the outcome. Vieira, booked in the first half, was playing with comfortable assurance in spite of having Wise snapping at his heels. Early in the first half, the pair were lectured by Andy D'Urso, the referee. Shortly afterwards, Damien Delaney, a Leicester substitute, was booked and Wise became gratuitously involved with characteristic verbals.

He and Vieira squared up, forehead to forehead, aggression as feigned as that of boxers at a weigh-in. D'Urso sent off both, Vieira for a second yellow, Wise with an outright red "for butting" and a three-match suspension. Each manager defended his player, Taylor saying there had been no butt. Wenger said, ridiculously, that the players "respect each other". I doubt it, and certainly the loutish Wise has no respect for the game, having spent a 10th of his entire career under suspension. It has to be asked why Taylor bought him.

Sharp early goals by Freddie Ljungberg and Sylvain Wiltord, each set up by Robert Pires, gave Arsenal untroubled command. Leicester never had a shot worth the name. Ade Akinbiyi might as well have stayed at home, and Thierry Henry and taunting Kanu, substitutes in the last 20 minutes, deepened Leicester's embarrassment.